Forage and grain crops are common components of livestock feed. While these components may be utilized independently, it is frequently preferable to provide a mixture of feed stuff such as hay with grain or other fluent materials. Several mixers have been developed for this purpose. A very successful mixer for fluent and non-fluent material is disclosed in previously issued patents of which I am a co-inventor or sole inventor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,990, issued Mar. 26, 1985; U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,672, issued Jul. 1, 1986 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,626, issued Jul. 12, 1988. The mixers of these patents include a rotor and a main mixing chamber next to vertically stacked augers in an auxiliary side chamber. The material is moved from one end of the auxiliary chamber to the other in opposite directions and is continuously cycled from the main chamber into the auxiliary chamber. The mixing action is more extensively described in these patents.
The mixer of these patents will mix fluent material with non-fluent material such as hay. Hay is more difficult to mix with fluent material as it is necessary that the hay be left in the mixer for extended periods of time until it has been sufficiently chopped or shredded. Also, it is often desirable to put hay bales of varying sizes into the mixer for mixing with the fluent materials. I invented an improved mixer that would allow for a faster more efficient way of chopping or processing baled hay of different sizes with the fluent materials. This improved mixer is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,310, issued Sep. 1, 1992.
While the prior art mixers supply an efficient means for mixing fluent with non-fluent material, there remains a need to significantly increase the speed of the mixing and cutting process. In addition, the prior art mixers allow a certain amount of flakes, or small portions of hay, to fall between the flights on the auger; these smaller portions of hay then go into the rotor chamber without getting cut completely. What is needed is an even faster, more efficient means of chopping or processing hay, or other similar non-fluent material, for mixing with the fluent materials and that further reduces the amount of flakes of hay that fall between the flights of the chopper auger and ride to the end of the mixer without getting cut with the knives. In addition, what is needed is a means of cutting hay into the mixture while still allowing other feed additives, such as silage, to be added while still obtaining a proper level of mixing at the same auger speed.